The Last Uncle [Hardcover]

Linda Pastan (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0393050637 | ISBN-13: 978-0393050639 | Publication Date: April 2002 | Edition: 1st

A collection of poems that deal with loss and the difficult transition between generations. They are also about love and the landscape as well as the many pleasures of the imagination.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Maryland's former poet laureate plays to her strengths in this restrained and sensitive 11th collection. Readers have long loved Pastan (Carnival Evening: New and Selected Poems 1968-1998) for her quiet lyrics of suburban domestic life, of marital love and motherhood, and of grief. Many new poems concentrate on the last of these subjects, linking her own aging body, and the loss of older relatives, to what she sees in gardens and trees, in European travels, in American Jewish history or in visual art. Medical and familial experience common to older Americans drives several bittersweet poems. In one, "the ophthalmologist told me gravely/ that I didn't produce enough tears"; in another, "I look at my aging/ children. Ask me, I want/ to tell them. Ask me now." Seasonal motifs and family members together control almost the whole volume, from "Another Autumn" ("Was love enough, even then?") to the 12 12-line poems called "The Months," with which the volume concludes. While Pastan's domestic lyric still lacks the intellectual heft of seemingly similar work (by, say, Louise Glick), this work remains deeply felt and will certainly please her existing broad audience. Whether in short lines or long, outdoors or indoors, she seeks a fluent, accessible lyric seriousness, finding in seasonal and domestic properties ("daffodils," "doctors," "the door knocker," "the deer") signs of mortality, gratitude and wonder.

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

"The pills I take to postpone death/ are killing me," writes Pastan in her new collection of poems, her 11th in about 35 years. Here she deals with loss, with death and other passings, and with the often curious journey through the stages of aging. However, in these careful, insightful considerations of time and its occasional rough edges, the poet finds much to celebrate: the hard-won beauty of her son's piano playing; the "love and/ disobedience" of her dog, who is given to sit regardless of the command; a tree surrounded by "a dozen monarchs/ and swallowtails as if they were/ its second crop of blossoms." These are the things to remember, to praise: a branch outside the window, soon to be kindling; an old car going to rust; "the 8th dog of my life;/ the 10th scribbled book./ And love turning its back on endings/ one more time." Pastan has done a good job of turning our attention to what really matters. "If death is everywhere we look,/ at least let's marry it to beauty." Pastan's poems are always worth our attention. Louis McKee, Painted Bride Arts Ctr., Philadelphia
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 77 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (April 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393050637
• ISBN-13: 978-0393050639
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,631,119 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Poems of Memory, June 16, 2002

By 

Timothy Haugh (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Last Uncle (Hardcover)

We do not have enough respect for poets these days. Unfortunately, the only poets most of us know are the past masters we were taught about in school. This is nothing against the past masters--I love their poetry as well. We need to remember, however, that there is a lot of great poetry still being written. This slim book of mostly quite short poems demonstrates that.

There are a lot of good poems here, especially in the first two sections. The overall theme of the book is memory and loss, including a recognition that what we have now will eventually be lost and become memory. There are some very powerful images here.

In the opening poem, "Women on the Shore," we find in the opening line (The pills I take to postpone death/ are killing me...) and closing lines (If death is everywhere we look,/ at least let's marry it to beauty.) a kind of description of the book as a whole. So many of these poems are memories of loss--from "Practicing" where a man wishes he hadn't given up piano lessons as a boy to "The Answering Machine" inspired by the recorded voice of a dead friend. "43rd Anniversary" and "In the Garden" I think are also very strong poems.

My favorite sequence here, though, is in part 2 of the book where we find poems I've taken to calling "people as memory" poems which remind us that it is people, not things, that are our best link to the past, ourselves and our future. "Family History," "March 5," and "The Last Uncle" are excellent examples of this.

Anyone interested in seeing some of the excellence in what is being done in poetry today would be amiss in not taking a look at this collection.